Clause 11 - Penalty
Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill
3:45 pm
Evan Harris (Science, Non-Departmental & Cross Departmental Responsibilities; Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
I rise briefly to give my support and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Withington (Mr. Leech) to the amendments, and for the same reasons that the hon. Gentleman gave. It seems reasonable to recognise that such a civil penalties scheme will not be the best way to deal with the really terrible offenders who employ trafficked employees. Without the amendments, the penalties will fall too widely, hitting those who are not the serious offenders but who might have made a genuine error. They might be accused of committing an offence, but when we go into the issue in greater detail, it might turn out that they have not.
If we are to have such a civil penalty, it seems reasonable to provide for what I think we would all agree is a modest modification of the scheme through the amendments. That would certainly meet some of the concerns of the business community, whose members, generally speaking, are not and should not be, in the business of seeking to exploit or otherwise use people who have no basis for working in this country. There are some poor practices, but without these modest amendments, the civil penalty will not be the best way to tackle them.